The Pulse

How do you sum up the experience of motherhood, and all of the changes it brings, both big and small? It’s a transformation that affects everything — hormones, body image, relationships, feelings, money, career — even the answers to larger, existential questions like, “Who am I in this world, and what is my role?”
On this episode, we explore the impact of motherhood. We talk with a psychologist about “matrescence” — a term used to describe the multi-faceted transformation ushered in by motherhood — and why it comes as a surprise to so many mothers. We find out how motherhood rewires the brain, and how those changes affect the way we think and behave. And we hear about a new play that challenges ideas about motherhood and women’s health.

After interviewing women about their experiences of motherhood, Aurélie Athan came across a term that seemed to describe all of the changes: Matrescence. Athan is a reproductive psychologist and a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.

When health-and-science journalist Chelsea Conaboy first became a mother, she was surprised to find that the maternal instinct she’d heard about for years wasn’t kicking in. That led Conaboy to investigate some of our long-held beliefs about motherhood — and how they influence our ways of thinking and behaving. Her book is called “Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood.”

We talk with writer and actor Andrea Peterson about her new play, (plan c) — a dark comedy that explores the gray areas of motherhood, from medical issues to fears about maintaining independence to relationship troubles. The world premiere of (plan c) with Pygmalion Productions is running now at the Rose Wagner Black Box Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah.

When Katie Pratt was 3 years old, she was diagnosed with a Chiari malformation, a rare brain condition in which the cerebellum bulges through an opening in the skull into the spinal canal. Katie’s mom, Wendy, had a hunch about what the solution would be — but it wasn’t until doctors opened up Katie’s skull that they discovered she was right. Katie interviews her mom about the experience, and her incredible flash of mother’s intuition.

For decades, psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA were regarded as dangerous drugs of abuse — but that’s started changing as research increasingly reveals their ability to help treat serious mental health issues. On this episode, we listen back to past conversations about the science behind these drugs’ therapeutic potential, along with powerful stories of healing.

When Marcus Capone retired from the Navy SEALS in 2013 after more than a decade of service, he found himself at loose ends, and battling a deep depression. He cycled through antidepressants and other prescription medications, but nothing worked — until his wife suggested a radical alternative: psychedelic-assisted therapy. Capone describes his experience with ibogaine, how it changed him, and why he thinks it worked when nothing else did. Capone is the co-founder and chairman of VETS: Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, and is featured in the documentary “In Waves and War” now on Netflix.

Psychiatrist and researcher Rachel Yehuda explains the science behind psychedelic-assisted therapy, and what she’s learned about its potential to treat PTSD in veterans. She leads the PTSD clinical research program at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in New York City.

MDMA — otherwise known as ecstasy or molly — is best known as a party drug, but in recent years, scientists have begun investigating it as a treatment for PTSD. We talk with science journalist Rachel Nuwer about the history of MDMA, the science behind its therapeutic potential, and how it helped change one woman’s life. Nuwer’s book is called “I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World.”

Cluster headaches can be debilitating — but a little over a decade ago, a group of sufferers, who call themselves “Clusterbusters,” began investigating the potential of psilocybin, otherwise known as magic mushrooms, to treat their intractable pain. We talk with sociologist Joanna Kempner about her research into the group and their mission, documented in her book “Psychedelic Outlaws: The Movement Revolutionizing Modern Medicine.”

Forty years ago, news was only beginning to emerge that an accident had occurred — one that could put millions of people at risk. A reactor at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, then part of the Soviet Union, had exploded, releasing a plume of radioactive gases and particles into the atmosphere and spreading some of the most hazardous radionuclides known to humanity.
We look back at what caused this devastating nuclear accident, and explore its legacy with Adam Higginbotham, author of “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster.” He describes the perfect storm of Soviet secrecy, design flaws, and a series of bad decisions and mistakes that led to the accident, and how it shaped the future of nuclear energy. We’ll find out how a special fungus discovered in the reactor could help protect astronauts from cosmic radiation. And we’ll also hear why and how nuclear energy is making a comeback in the U.S. — including at Three Mile Island, the site of another nuclear accident.

Science writer Michaeleen Doucleff was sitting on a beautiful beach with her daughter, but she couldn’t relax. She kept reaching for her phone, checking it over and over. She was frustrated but couldn’t stop. Why was she doing this? In her new book, “Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods,” Doucleff explores how devices can hijack our brain’s reward system to keep us coming back for more, even after the pleasure is gone.

Politicians are eyeing Greenland as an important strategic location, perfectly situated between Europe and North America. President Donald Trump has said he remains highly interested in acquiring or controlling Greenland as a national security and economic asset. But for a lot of researchers, Greenland is a beautiful and fragile place that holds important clues to the Earth’s past and future. So what are they learning about the large, icy island? 
On this episode, we’ll explore some of the research happening in Greenland. We’ll hear about archeologists digging up Viking graves to find out why a settlement disappeared sometime in the 15th century, and talk to an adventurous climate scientist who tracks and follows meltwater that’s flowing from Greenland’s ice sheet into the sea. Also, what are the riches buried under the ice that everybody is interested in? We’ll find out how mining for Greenland’s rare earth metals could affect this ecosystem.

We talk with writer and photographer Neil Shea about his travels to Greenland and the intriguing historical mystery he found there — the Viking settlement that thrived and then vanished 500 years later. Shea explains how and why Erik the Red first pioneered the settlement, the global shifts that put them into decline, and lingering clues as to how and why they disappeared. Shea’s book about his Arctic adventures is “Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic.”

President Trump's intense interest in Greenland has raised the question — what is it about Greenland that makes it so valuable? One answer, according to journalist Vince Beiser, is its rare earth metals. We talk with Beiser about what makes these metals so valuable, the challenges involved with mining them, and his predictions for what will happen next. Beiser's book is “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future.”

Greenland isn’t just valuable strategically and economically — it’s also a key hub for research on climate change. We talk with Rutgers University geography professor Åsa Rennermalm about why Greenland — and, in particular, its massive ice sheet — is so important to this research, her experiences roughing it in the tundra, and what the recent political discourse could mean for the future of her research.